Abstract
Understanding the factors that influence tourists’ satisfaction and the pre-trip destination image of potential visitors is particularly important for policy makers and tourism marketers. The objective of this study is twofold; first to assess the satisfaction level of tourists who have visited Dubai and further explore the factors that shape it and associate with it. Second, to assess the intention to visit Dubai according to the pre-trip destination image of potential tourists. This empirical study relies on a unique sample of 210 participants from all over the world in the year 2017. Several demographic characteristics as well as variables related to the trip process and the city attributes are collected and explored in order to document any relationship between the two groups. The major findings of the ordered logit analysis demonstrate that the city attributes are the most significant contributors to tourists’ satisfaction and to non visitors’ intention to visit Dubai. Trip factors and demographic characteristics also play a significant role only for the group of visitors. The overall satisfaction is what creates loyalty and drives tourists to repeat their visit.
Highlights
Travel and tourism is one of the most important activities worldwide that generates billions of income each year
According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (2018a), the total contribution of travel and tourism to GDP in 2017 was USD 8,272.3bn (10.4% of GDP) and this is expected to rise by 4% to USD 12,450.1bn (11.7% of GDP) in 2018
The particular challenge complicating the conceptualisation of the tourism destination image formation process is that everything happens in the mind of potential individual tourists (Reynolds, 1965; Fakeye and Crompton, 1991)
Summary
Travel and tourism is one of the most important activities worldwide that generates billions of income each year. The particular challenge complicating the conceptualisation of the tourism destination image formation process is that everything happens in the mind of potential individual tourists (Reynolds, 1965; Fakeye and Crompton, 1991). The latter hampers the identification and conceptualisation of the process, which according to Pike (2016) is as a black box process and not fully comprehended. As Kim and Chen (2016) argue, the affective reaction is inseparably linked to the belief or cognition and not a mere consequence of cognition
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